مرکز منطقه ای اطلاع رساني علوم و فناوري - A CRITICAL APPROACH TO THE HOME CARE FEE ARRANGEMENT IN TURKEY

Abstract :

“Home care” is a type of care that takes into account all aspects of human health and is provided to people with special needs at their place of residence so that they can continue their normal lives without being separated from their families. The Turkish Act No. 5378 on Disabled People delegated responsibilities to the Ministry of Family and Social Policies for improving the psychosocial health of the disabled people. One such service provided by the Ministry to the disabled is “home care fee”. Home care fee is given to those who are perpetually care-giving to their relatives with severe disability and whose monthly income does not exceed 2/3 of the minimum wage per capita in the household. However, there are significant problems about the current home care fee system. The current system gives all the responsibility for caregiving to only one person. A long term socioeconomic protection can not be provided to those individuals who are unable to be otherwise employed due to their caregiving responsibilities. There is no social security for caregivers, and there is no continuous training on care. In this context, the aim of this study is to make some suggestions on how to redesign the current system with a rights-based approach by revealing the problems with the existing arrangement.